


Third Time's the Charm

by RainKiss



Series: The Parker Cluster [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Abduction, DODC, Earth-11580, Gen, Human Experimentation, Is this whump?, May swears colorfully, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Nope that's not a joke, Spider sacs, Spiders yet again, Threats, Threats to people and cows, Violence, animal experimentation, deliberate pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26062183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainKiss/pseuds/RainKiss
Summary: Mondays were bad enough without the added stress of watching your husband and nephew chat with a horde of spiders, but being kidnapped was the icing.May imagined a myriad of specific scenarios where she could bludgeon Norman. She’d get to that as soon as she was free. But now, May was strapped to a cold, metal table with her insides burning after she’d inhaled all that suffocating green smoke.
Relationships: Ben Parker & Peter Parker, Ben Parker/May Parker (Spider-Man), May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker
Series: The Parker Cluster [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824430
Comments: 15
Kudos: 18





	1. Third Trial Commencing

**Author's Note:**

> The third installment is from May's POV!  
> This took a while because I'm super busy and didn't have time. Also had to rewrite a good chunk of this to change a lot! The next update will be two weeks from now.

May was resting her feet after a busy evening, munching on a Reese’s bar. The sun was setting and one of the windows in the pantry gave a wonderful view of the red sky. 

She finished her quick snack and slipped on her shoes when the doors to the busy room opened and someone in neither scrubs nor a casual civilian outfit glided in. 

Norman Osborn waltzed into the hospital like he freakin’ owned the place. The high-priced suit he wore complimented the smug grin, the smarmy attitude, and the arrogant tone of his voice. May had not missed him in the years he had been abroad. She’d only met him a couple of times and that was because Peter and Ned would sometimes bring Harry for sleepovers. 

While Harry had been a perfectly polite darling of a child (obviously a trait he’d learned from his mother), his father had perfected the art of looking down his nose at May and Ben because they weren’t as highly intellectual as Richard and Mary.

But after the spider bite debacle? May hated the man even more.

So when Norman walked straight up to her, wanting to have a brief chat outside, May tried to make excuses.

“I’m still on the clock,” May said, walking around one of the tables to head to the inner rooms. Norman followed her unperturbed.

“Aren’t we all?” Norman chuckled. “Time runs down for all of us, May. Except for Peter.”

May stopped for a moment, frowning at him. “I beg your pardon?”

Norman raised an eyebrow. “I figured Ben knew about him. Don’t you know too? Or are you playing dumb?”

Stamping down on her irritation, May said, “I really don’t have time for whatever it is you’re doing, Norman. This is my place of work—”

“I am here about work, actually,” Norman said, smiling. His eyes barely crinkled, but his forehead showed signs of strain. “My work that Peter has taken. Or did you not know that he stole something from me?”

May swallowed, pressing the sides of her sweaty palms against her pants. “What’s that supposed to… look, I don’t get why you’re not understanding—”

“Maybe, you’re the one who doesn’t understand the situation,” Norman hissed, his voice taking on a threatening tone so fats, May’s head spun.

“I saw your boy take my spiders and my research,” Norman stepped closer to her, giving her less room to move, less air to inhale. “I will get either of them back, and you _will_ help me, May.”

He moved his unbuttoned blazer to show her the handle of a gun, tucked into his belt. May suddenly couldn’t breathe. This unsaid ‘or else’ in his ultimatum made her realize that Norman was truly serious and very threatening right now.

“Where’s your phone?” he asked, switching back to a gentler mood. She struggled to move her hand, but managed to pat the pocket of her scrubs. He casually took away her phone and slipped a claw-like grip around her shoulders. Before she knew it, they were walking out of the building. 

There was anxiety bubbling in her throat, blocking her words and making her stiff and silent. Everything was straining her nerves now; the tight bun of her hair pulling at her roots, the ringing in her ears, the painful thuds of her heart, the stiffness of her knees, and the cold toes that seemed to burn her, unwilling to let her dig her feet into the gravel to pull away from him.

May _hated_ that. Hated it when fear made her freeze, rather than even give her room to pick between fight or flight. 

Norman had begun to dig in his pockets for his keys as they stood by his car. May stuck her hand into her pocket to reach her pager. Her own car keys were in her locker or she might have tried to stab him right in his smarmy face.

She’d used the pager for years and her thumb went over the keypad carefully, trying to message the head nurse but Norman’s head had snapped towards her so fast, she froze.

Could he… had he heard the tiny beeps of the buttons?

A shadow passed over his face. Norman’s voice went low, a growl barely contained within his chest. May couldn’t even speak. His eyes had sharp crinkles that had nothing to do with crow’s feet smiles. She heard his teeth grind before his voice rattled like thunder, “ _Get rid of it. NOW!_ ”

It was a wonder no one else from the hospital heard it. Norman’s quiet rage was boiling over and he grabbed her wrist, twisting it until May scrambled to take out her pager and throw it into the bushes.

He pushed her into the back seat and slammed the door. May had to snatch her feet away before they could get jammed.

The car had dark tinted glasses and as Norman took his seat and drove away from the hospital, May finally managed to get her voice back. 

“You can’t do this,” she whispered, hands shaking. “You can’t—”

“May,” Norman said in a warning voice. “You’ll find that I do whatever I want, especially when your rotten spawn thinks he can steal from me! He’ll pay for that. And so will you.”

He touched his screen and the black partition between the front and back seats rolled up. May pressed her back against the leather seat, trying not to hyperventilate. 

A soft hiss came from the lower portions of both car doors. May looked at her feet, feeling cold air blow around, only to find that it was more like cold greenish smoke, pouring from tiny vents.

“Shit!” May cried, banging the glass. She held her breath and brought her leg up to kick at the window again before trying the partition.

“You’ll be fine, May,” Norman’s muffled voice came through the speakers. The grin was very audible. “Just take a deep breath.”

May hacked her throat out, unwittingly inhaling a lung full of the smoke. It was vicious, like cold knives stabbing through her airway. She shuddered, feeling her brain freeze and her lungs contract, trying to expel the smoke out, but her entire body seized and May collapsed on the seat, jerking wildly before feeling her eyes rolling back into her head and passing out.

**~~~~~**

She woke up with the lightest of jerks. The table below her body was unyielding and cold, with strong metal buckles around her upper body, wrists, thighs, and ankles. Harsh white lights faced her from above. The room was windowless with dull grey walls and sleek screens to the side that showed her EKG readings.

The machine was silent, but she could read her high heart rate. It was at 200 bpm. It felt like it too.

Her body felt cold, not as much at the metal table, but lower than she’d liked. May twisted her hands and legs, struggling to move within the harness but it didn’t give.

_Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic._

Too late for that.

May shut her eyes, flinching from the burning lights, feeling her eyes tear up. Her lungs pushed against her ribs and she sucked in a sharp breath, trying to stay calm.

Everything was unsettled. Her body was reacting to the lack of information and an unfamiliar environment. It looked like the most uninviting dentist’s room. This was the last place May wanted to be drugged. Her mind wandered to all the hateful thoughts of illegal surgeries, organ trafficking, experimentation —

The EKG monitor went wild.

One of the doors opened and Norman walked into the large room. He carefully locked the door and wandered in, almost casually, like May was not strapped down to a metal table like a victim in a B-movie horror/thriller.

He’d taken off the ridiculous blazer and had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. The blue latex gloves on his hands did not make her feel better.

“Oh jeez, May,” Norman lowered his iPad, to take a look at the EKG. “I’m not cutting you open, will you calm down?”

“Calm down?” May asked, feeling appropriately hysterical. “I have all the right in the world to do the opposite!”

“So, what? You’re exercising your right to freak out?”

“YES!” she shrieked. May whipped to the side, pulling her right hand as much as she could, straining all her muscles, feeling her veins stand out till…

Till the metal band over her chest strained, bending under her pull. The cuffs around her wrists creaked and she swore she could feel the iron losing in the battle against her own strength—

**BAMM!**

A heavy force slammed down over her shoulder. Something cracked loudly. A hot, white fire burned all through her right shoulder and May screamed.

“Don’t move!” Norman yelled, banging on her metal cuff to jam it into the table.

May couldn’t breathe. Tears leaked out and her shoulder felt completely immobilized under the excruciating pain radiating all through it.

“I just dislocated it,” Norman said dismissively. “You’ll be fine. In fact, you’re better than fine. The serum’s working for now.”

May opened her mouth, voice dying and nothing, not even air escaping. She gasped finally, trying to settle down on the table without moving her shoulder too much. The cold metal hurt too much and she couldn’t help the sob that wrenched through her clenched jaw.

Norman walked around her head and held her temple in place, directing a flashlight into her eyes. She flinched away, but he grabbed her hair and pulled.

“It’s just a standard check!” Norman grumbled. “Hold still.”

“You’re crazy!” May coughed. The pain was a little more manageable now that she’d found her bearing. But it was doing nothing to alleviate her fears.

“Some would call me eccentric,” Norman murmured, engrossed in typing away on his iPad.

“Do they work for you? Trust me, they were being unduly polite,” she grumbled, trying to stare at a spot on the ceiling to focus on something other than him or the pain.

Norman narrowed his eyes at her. He took out her phone from his pocket and said, “Your manners are quite deplorable, May. Let’s see what Ben has to say about this.”

May stared in horror as he navigated through her phone, found Ben’s contact number and called him.

“Why are you doing this?” she whispered, wincing when she pulled on her shoulder accidentally, causing a quick flare-up. She froze in place, trying not to move again.

“I am reacting to what your nephew set in motion,” Norman said, placing the phone to his ear. “Blame him.”

She could hear the phone ring a couple of times before it connected and Ben’s voice came through, _“Hello? Got a break, May?”_

Her face crumpled. She couldn’t bear to imagine how Ben would react to this.

Norman gave the smallest of chuckles, “Something like that.”

His humorous tone sparked a sense of anger in May. The _audacity_ of him to make light of it. He’d abducted her, hurt her shoulder—

Ben, predictably reacted stunned at hearing Norman’s voice. May heard the tremor in his next words and felt fear all over again.

_“Where’s… what’re you doing with May’s phone?”_

“Just borrowing it, don’t worry,” Norman hummed in his blasé tone. “She’s a little busy, so I can pass on a message if you’d like.”

_“I don’t understand—”_

“It’s a trade,” Norman said easily. “You took quite a few things that belong to me, so I returned the favor.”

May blinked away the tears that kept coming. The pain in her shoulder, the hurt in Ben’s words kept grounding her to reality.

“I’ll make it as simple as it needs to be,” Norman said. “I’ll let May go, completely hale and hearty. In return, you bring back the portable drive little Petey took from my building. And one pint of his blood.”

His… blood? And the drive, that damned drive!

“You can keep the spiders, every last one of them,” Norman added, his voice transforming from casual to hostile. “But I want that drive back with every bit of the data intact. That’s non-negotiable. Don’t make any copies, I’ll know if you did.”

With a final warning for Ben to call back in a few hours, he cut the call.

May stretched her ankles, trying to get them away from the freezing touch of the metal cuffs. 

“Uncomfortable?” Norman asked lightly. He tossed her phone into the air, catching it without even looking.

“Why d’you want Peter’s blood?” May whispered, trying to not sound as horrified as she felt.

Norman slipped her phone back into his pocket. He walked over and gripped the railing of the table to lean over her. She could smell his breath. It took all her resolve to not shudder.

“How’s your shoulder?” he asked, reaching over to poke the swelling. May hissed, flinching from his touch.

“You’re a nurse,” he continued. “Check it and tell me what you think.”

May knew that if she looked over and saw her arm dislocated from the shoulder socket, she might be sick. She could manage the sight of a patient in front of her, but this was completely different.

Even so, she held her breath and slowly turned her head to peek at her shoulder—

It looked… wait a second.

It wasn’t her arm. May heard an awful _grinding_ from inside her body. She could feel the brokenness of something, of a bone. Her collarbone. That’s where the swelling was coming from. She stared at horror at the growing heat under her skin from the clavicle fracture.

If her ligament was torn, she would need surgery to fix it, meds to treat potential osteomyelitis, weeks of physical therapy, and months of uneven payments to resolve the hospital bills. 

“Oh god!” she cried, feeling tears build up again. 

May’s hand would have to be in a sling for a week at minimum. She wouldn’t be able to work till she healed and even then, being a nurse required strong and supple fine motor skills. With Ben out of a steady job, it was on her to support the family as the main breadwinner, but this injury now threatened their livelihoods.

**“How could you...”**

“Not to worry,” Norman piped and reached over to push a fist at the broken bone.

May jerked at the burst of agony. She wasn’t sure if she’d screamed or had passed out. Everything went dark for a moment.

When she came to, May was panting, her entire body trembling from the small shocks that traveled all over. It felt like someone tasered her with a cattle prod.

She opened her eyes and found Norman, back to the side with his iPad. She tried to rest carefully, feeling the pain considerably lower than before. May gently looked at her wound. Her shirt over her collarbone was soaked in blood. It stuck to the skin uncomfortably. 

“There we go,” Norman said, walking back. She flinched away from him, but he ignored the movement and instead grabbed two handfuls of her scrubs and ripped a tear right into the side.

“Don’t touch me!” May shrieked, turning her head to snap her teeth over his hand, just below the wrist. She bit hard and Norman swore, yanking his arm away.

She’d broken into his skin, leaving good teeth marks there. Served him right.

Norman grunted. “The hell? I wasn’t going to… May, just look at the skin. See something?”

May glowered at him, fury making blood roar through her. The pain was lesser than she’d expected, so she risked a look at her collarbone.

The skin was a little torn and very red, but the injury didn’t look as bad as she’d assumed. May knew that the wound on her skin was definitely too ‘good’ to not be consistent with a compound fracture.

This reminded her of Ben’s gunshot wound: the stitches and rapid healing. A dangerous thought formed in her mind.

She looked back at Norman, terrified of her hypothesis. “What did you do to me?”

He finished examining the teeth marks around his arm, looking up with a maniacally proud grin. “I fixed you. I _healed_ you of the human condition of aging.”

He dropped his hands and then shrugged. “Well, nearly. Still need a few more variables in place to finish the equation.”

May shifted her right shoulder. She could feel the muscles pull, the tissues rubbing around the broken edges of the collarbone. Wincing, she lowered her shoulder, trying to distance herself from the reality of it. But the truth was right there.

She had borne the brunt of the dizzying pain and the broken bone like it was a stubbed toe. Like it was barely a thing.

She couldn’t feel anything fixing on the inside. For Ben, his wound had tried to heal even with the stitches. Nothing seemed to be happening inside her shoulder, mending, or even shifting.

“What variables?” May breathed, testing her sore throat. 

Norman perked up. “Oh, you were listening? Good. I was talking about the enhancer I’d given you. It’s not all perfect - incomplete. That’s where Peter’s blood is relevant. It’s the second part of the equation, so to speak.”

May swallowed, feeling beads of sweat roll into her hair, ire rising again. “What… what are you blabbering about?! What equation, what mad science are you doing, Osborn?!”

His shoulders dropped by an inch. He stared at her, completely disarmed. “Mad science? May… that hurts, it really does. You think I stay cooped up in a basement to throw together unstable compounds and make things explode?”

He scoffed at her, pushing away from the table to grab his stupid iPad. He swiped through the screen and then turned it so she could see it.

It was a video of Norman in a tall gas chamber. He was strapped up to a standing metal wall, with strong cuffs around his body just as how May was locked. There was no audio, but May didn’t need it because the moment the chamber began to fill with a viscous greenish gas, she realized the extent of the condition.

“This,” Norman said, tapping the screen, “... is a revolutionary serum that enhances muscle strength by a considerable amount. But that’s only the beginning. I was the subject for the first trial.”

He paused the video and set the device aside. “Trial one was mostly successful.”

May had a terrible taste in her mouth. “Mostly?” she asked, fearing what came next.

“I’ve run into a few hitches. Namely, lacking the abilities of a few other things that should be aspects of a true enhancer,” Norman said, shaking his head. He scowled at her. “Of course, that’s where the second trial comes into play. A very unprecedented trial, if you ask me.”

_I didn’t_ , May thought. But anything to keep him talking and not hurt her more.

Norman shook his head, curling his lip. “One random kid interferes in the experiment, nearly ruins the entire thing, but… but actually ends up giving more information, more advancement than I’ve gotten in _years_!”

He glared at her. “It can’t be a coincidence that Richard’s boy was the one who fell in that pit.”

Norman paced around the room, leaving May’s head reeling. Richard and Mary had worked with him (or rather ‘for’ him) a long time ago. But what had that to do with this?

“See, everything I tried? Every test, regardless of the subject, every possible assessment of the project failed when Richard and Mary left. What kind of a correlation do you think that was, May?”

A straight question. May struggled to get her thoughts in order. “A… direct one?”

“Precisely!” Norman spat. “They _sabotaged_ my project! My life’s work!”

He threw a fit. May watched him tense up his shoulders, ready to punch an unfortunate target.

“They wrecked all the samples,” Norman growled. “Contaminated everything. I couldn’t use my supplies because the people I thought I could trust, turned around, and stabbed me in the back!”

He scoffed. “Thought that’d be the end of it, but I showed Richard, didn’t I? I proved Mary wrong. It took years of sacrifice and sweat and blood, but I reached here.”

Norman placed his arms on the side of May’s table, his eyes boring into hers. “I got to the human testing phase. Do you have any idea what I’ve been through, May?”

May swallowed, mouth going dry. She shook her head carefully.

He smirked. “Your family’s been a pain ever since they destroyed my attempt to help the world, to save us. But I made it through. I built a near-workable serum. And with Peter’s blood, everything will fall into place.”

“Why Pet—”

“Because he was infected by the spider venom and survived!” Norman snapped. “He received a near-fatal dose and still managed to pull through! Barely suffered during the process. He walked out of my facility like nothing even happened! Almost like it was planned.”

Norman kicked the wheel of May’s table, sending it swiveling a full 90 degrees to the right. May squeaked, bracing herself against the bed.

“It doesn’t make sense yet,” Norman shook his head. “But I’ll figure it out. Something in Peter made him perfectly receptive to the venom. And once I isolate the answer, the third trial will prove everything I need.”

He looked at her, falling silent so abruptly that May felt the temperature in the room drop.

“You need his blood for your madness,” May whispered. “Is that why you got Modell to try and take it from the clinic?”

Norman rolled his eyes. “That was his absentminded moment. I had to clean up after him, wipe all footage of his presence there. In case, you had any bright ideas of coming after me,” he added.

The cold, or rather his barely settled anger, was making her shake.

He patted her aching shoulder. May froze till he took his hand away. It was a whirlwind of information and she closed her eyes, trying to slow her panting. Panicking was not doing her any good.

If only human emotions worked the way logic required.

She looked over to him. Norman was bent over, studying his hand closely. She could see it trembling. Under the sharp light of the desk lamp, his skin had a green, scaly look. 

“Something in Peter’s blood reacted extremely well with the venom,” Norman mused, still focused on his knuckles. “But everyone’s DNA is unique to them. Maybe some things cannot simply be recreated,” Norman looked up and gave her a crooked smile. “Technology like that is a little further away from us, so I have to make do with some borrowed… _tools_.”

Tools. This sack of shit just called her darling Peter a _tool_.

May rested her head back on the table, using her anger to find a steady rhythm to settle in. Okay, okay. Lab experiment with Peter and spiders. Interference with a project, Peter ended up as a second trial for a serum. His survival meant whatever happened worked for him. So, for it to work for Norman as well, he needed her nephew’s blood.

**~~~~~**

They waited. Norman sat on a swivel chair, checking random files while May stayed exactly where she’d been for the better part of an hour. The steel table didn’t grow any more uncomfortable to her, but she’d have preferred a splint to brace her aching shoulder. The grinding collarbone wasn’t happy with her.

“I need to pee,” May announced after another hour.

Norman wrinkled his nose. “Hold it in.”

“That can be really bad.”

“I don’t particularly care.”

“Rude,” May whispered, shifting restlessly on the table. She could feel the bed sores developing.

Her phone rang. 

_“Open up your heart and let the sunshine in…”_

The cheerful music of the McGuire Sisters filled the air. The old-timey guitar stringing gave May a delirious sense of hope and worry. Ben was calling.

Norman raised an eyebrow at her. She stared back, determined to not give him any satisfaction. His disapproval over her music choices was the least of her concerns.

Holding a finger to his lips, he answered the call and said, “Hello!”

_"Hello,"_ Ben replied, sounding so subdued, May had to steel herself. _"We're ready. The drive and one pint of blood, no more."_

Oh god. They were doing it.

Norman’s frightening grin overtook his face, as he grabbed one of the files to flip through. "Now, that's perfect! Alright, Ben. I'll give you the address. Bring the drive and Peter over and you can take May back."

_“Wait,”_ Ben’s voice rose in surprise. _“I’m bringing the pint over, Peter isn’t coming—”_

The contentment in Norman’s expression dimmed as he retorted, _“How would I know if you bring Peter’s blood, or your own, or Max’s, or a random pigeon’s?! Bring the drive and Peter. I’ll withdraw the blood myself. And then you, May, and your nephew can leave.”_

May swallowed. Her throbbing in her clavicle hadn’t abated much, but focusing on Ben’s voice, even hurt and fearful, gave her a clearer head.

_“Norman, can I talk to her?”_ Ben asked. Her heart soared. _“Please, just to make sure she’s fine.”_

“Fine!” he sighed, walking to her now. He held the phone to her ear. May tried to trap the phone between her head and shoulder, craning her neck to the side as much as she could.

“Ben? Ben, is it you?”

_“Oh, thank god, May!”_ Ben replied, relief so evident that it made her exhale, taking a weight off her chest.

Peter joined in, _“May, are you okay?!”_

“Peter!” she scrambled. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m okay. Are you and Ben—”

Norman snatched the phone, yanking it away with a suddenness that had her jerking her broken collarbone. May gasped at the shooting pain, but quickly bit down on the yell that had tried to come out. She didn’t want Ben or Peter to freak out any more than they already were.

Her head reeled until she was able to focus again. Norman was giving clipped instructions to Ben now and May realized that she was being held in Horizon Labs, where Peter had gone for his field trip, where he’d been bitten by the spiders.

Norman’s voice was severe. “Peter knows the route. Don’t be late. And no tricks, Ben. I know you. You’re nowhere as smart as Richard was, so don’t even try.”

He cut the call and shot May an unimpressed glare, as though it were her fault that they were all in this mess.

“Why d’you hate Ben so much?” She glared back at him. “He’s done nothing to you!”

Norman gave her a look that was the equivalent of rolling his eyes. “To be honest, I despise him by association. How he and Richard were related, is beyond me.”

May gritted her teeth, clenching her fists so hard the metal cuffs gave another creak. Norman looked down at them before saying, “Tamp down that temper, May. It’s no good in the long run. I speak from experience.”

“How ‘bout you experience my shoe up your ass!” she snapped. “How dare you talk to Ben like that?!”

“Colorful,” he muttered, turning his back on her. “And here, I was going to let you use the restroom. But I guess you can hold it after all.”

May took a shuddering breath, inhaling as deep as she could without jostling her aching shoulder. She exhaled and said in a calmer voice, “Can I please go to the restroom?”

Norman smirked, leaning against his desk. “I’m not sure… can you?”

_Can I punch this bitch?_

“ **May** I please go to the restroom?” her voice was just short of a growl. But it only served to make Norman more amused.

“Since I’m in a good mood, of course, May. You may go.”

He removed a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked her feet first. Then, without warning, he grabbed her right ankle and wrenched it so forcefully that there was a horrid popping sound before a white-hot fire shot up her leg. May shrieked, nearly blacking out from the sudden excruciating hurt.

“Can’t have you trying to run,” Norman said, cheerfully. He unlocked the other metal cuffs, but May was still struggling to draw in enough air to stay awake. There was a burning agitation in her ankle now, surrounding the dislocated bone.

“What… why…?” she gasped, tears streaming down her face. She tried to hold her leg, not daring to let her fingers touch her foot.

“It’s not broken, don’t worry. Besides, this is for science,” he said, before pointing to a small door to the side. “Don’t be long in there. I want you prepped for the second part of your trial.”

May curled onto her side, now free of her restraints. Her shoulder was burning again, but it was her ankle that was swelling fast. She couldn’t stop panting. “Second part…?”

Norman narrowed his eyes. “You’re the third trial, May. I said this, I need Peter’s blood to figure out how it is compatible with the spiders’ venom. Once I take his blood, I’ll run it through the simulator. When it gives me a 100% potential for success, I’ll test his blood in you.”

She stared at him in horror. “You can’t! Peter and I aren’t related… our blood groups aren’t compatible. I’ll reject his DNA—”

“I’ve injected you with the enhancer,” he said, dismissively. “That was step one. Your blood has the capabilities of a universal acceptor now. Your body won’t have an issue with the blood group transfusion. No, it’s the cross-species DNA transfer that you should be worried about.”

May raised her head slowly. “Cross-species…”

Norman frowned. “I thought you’re the smarter one out of you and Ben. Between species, as in between human and spiders. Peter’s body accepted spider DNA. He’s the only test subject with such remarkable results. Now, we need to replicate it to see if he’s an exception. If it is successful with you, your broken bone and the dislocated ankle will heal in a matter of days. You do not need to panic.”

The madness in every sentence he spoke seemed invisible to him. May couldn’t understand how anyone was so oblivious to their own appalling words.

“And what if,” May gulped, feeling tears burn her eyes again. “What if I’m not compatible with spider DNA?”

Norman picked up another file to read through, only half-listening to her. “Well, it’s not as though this planet will ever run out of humans. I’ll manage it. You, on the other hand, won’t be such a mystery. I can easily monitor you for any problematic symptoms. Your painful death will be an indicator that Peter is an absolutely unique specimen. In that case, I’ll need to do a lot more research before finalizing a safe product that I can use for myself.”

May couldn’t respond. Her fingertips were grazing her swollen ankle that was turning purplish and green.

“But you might not have to worry,” he said, giving her a wink. “I have a gut feeling that third time’s the charm.”

He nodded towards the bathroom door behind her and began to thumb through his file again. May swallowed, lowering her head to survey her aching foot. Her shoulder strained against her jostling.

She was shaking in pain and fright, trying to stand gingerly. May didn’t know what to do. Just a few days ago, she had a normal life with a blessed family and a regular job.

Everything had gone for a toss the moment they got dragged into Norman’s business. And with the way things looked, it could go even worse. May could suffer a horrible and painful death, Peter might be used for constant experimentation, having his blood withdrawn over and over again till Norman was satisfied.

But Norman didn’t seem to know about Ben.

That was the silver lining here. In his speech about the enhancer and Peter’s blood, Norman hadn’t even mentioned anything about the spiders biting Ben. Was he under the impression that Ben and Peter were walking into a situation with no control of their own?

May steadied herself against the wall. Norman didn’t know Ben. Didn’t know that he was going up against a man who hated violence and would do anything to stop it. Norman didn’t know Peter, the smartest child May’d ever met.

She hobbled over to the bathroom. Maybe Ben could knock him out? He ought to use his new found strength to punch Norman's lights out.  
  


Or, she could do it.  
  


Okay, May. You can help out. Set your ankle, pretend to be in pain until Ben and Peter arrive. They would have a plan.

She knew it, bone-deep that they would be ready with their own play. May would have to be patient and wing it with them.

The Parkers were nothing if not resilient.


	2. Reaction Processing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gun was far too close to Peter’s shaking body and Norman had a manic glow to his eyes. May sobbed, wrenching her body in the chair to free herself. The zip ties cut into both of her wrists, now leaving sharp red wounds all the way around. If she tried to yank her arms, the ties were sure to free her of both hands.
> 
> “Would you stake Peter’s life on that?” Norman asked casually. He raised the gun and tapped the barrel against Peter’s temple.
> 
> May snapped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comic book science at work. Check end notes for further chapter warnings.

There was a cow in the lab.

Wait, too early. Back up.

May was tempted to gnaw on her zip ties. Her wrists and ankles were tightly bound to the armrests of the stiff chair. If she breathed in slowly to keep some distance from the line of panic, she almost couldn’t feel the sharp throbbing of her swollen ankle.

She sat in a small, almost cozy room, behind a large glass wall. There was barely any light in the room, so May could only peer through the glass and take in the sight of an immense hall on the other side. It consisted of a control panel and large glass tubes built into the floor with even more lab equipment placed further away.

Norman was there tossing a heavy silver pen-shaped thingamajig from hand to hand. It looked like the world’s tiniest rocket-booster. He clicked it, watching the lights on the panel flicker and make soft beeping noises till he switched the pen off. May watched him pocket the strange pen before setting up the lab for Ben and Peter’s arrival. 

It was a debilitating experience. May was seconds away from having a runny nose or bursting into tears which would definitely displease Norman. She didn’t want any more broken or dislocated bones.

To distract herself, May looked around the hall. The most obvious things that caught her attention were the three large glass tubes, wider than six people standing side-by-side. Their bases were hollowed out, leading into smooth and shiny semicircular pits. The first two pits were empty, but the third one was occupied by the perplexing and perplexed cow.

The glass tube above the animal was closed and sound-proof so May couldn’t hear the sad mooing.

“Best not to get too attached to the cow,” Norman called out through an intercom from behind the panel. He winked at her through the glass. “Just in case.”

May glowered, directing a barrage of ugly thoughts at him. Someone was morally obligated to deck him. 

He raised his head, listening to something outside. May tried to follow his attention, but couldn’t find anything making noise outside the lab. 

“Reunion time,” Norman announced, before leaving the intercom on. May’s heart thudded. They were here.

“No worries, May,” he said, stepping out into the light. “If everything goes well, you can walk out none-the-worse.”

None-the-worse, yeah right. Norman was planning to inject Peter’s blood into her vein, after already having made her inhale some toxic serum gas. What could possibly go wrong?

He walked over to the door at the end of the hall. It was marked with an ominous 11-530 and slid open to let him out.

May wriggled her wrists around, desperately trying to wear the zip ties down by scratching them against the wooden armrests. If it really was her family, she didn’t want them seeing her in such a state.

It was futile because Norman was back within minutes, tossing a portable drive from hand to hand. Ben and Peter were in tow. May froze, staring at them with wide eyes.

Her boys were here. Really here. Ben in his bulky jacket and heavy footsteps, a stiff and worried look on his face; Peter in a punny shirt under a wrinkled coat, sporting an openly hurt expression. They looked over at the cow in the pit inside the glass tube before snapping their eyes over to her through the glass. She yelled, “Ben! Peter! Are you okay?!”

They looked in her direction, confused. Their eyes didn’t meet her gaze but rather ran all over the glass, like they couldn’t see her. 

“Where’s May?” Ben asked, turning back to Norman who had booted up the drive to comb through the contents.

“She’s around. Don’t worry, Ben. You’ll see her when I get my blood.”

Peter's eyebrows came together in a frown. “ _My_ blood.”

Norman stood up to full height, a slow menacing shadow overtaking him. “Influenced by my spiders.”

Peter opened his mouth to retaliate, May guessed, with _My spiders!_ , but Ben held him back.

“You got the drive,” Ben pointed out. “Can we at least see her?”

It was with the greatest effort that Norman leaned over to press a switch on the panel. 

The lights in May’s small room came on, burning her retinas. She winced ducking low to avoid the sudden burn. Through the intercom, she heard their gasps.

“Aunt May!” Peter cried, almost running forwards but Norman stood in his way. “What did you do to her?!”

“I’m okay, honey!” May called out.

“Oh, we can’t hear you,” Norman said, looking at her before switching to them, unhesitatingly polite. “She’s fine. And now that you’re here, she will soon be better. Shall we begin?”

Ben’s jaw jutted out. He nodded, guiding Peter closer to him. Norman flashed them a smile before switching off the lights in May’s room.

She bit the inside of her cheek, watching them with anxious eyes. The glass wall must be soundproof and, with the lights off, sightless for them. Norman rolled a swivel chair towards Peter, gesturing him to sit in it. There was an empty clear bag hooked up to a 3-foot tall steel stand. He clamped a tube to it and efficiently fixed the needle.

Peter sat on the chair looking so jittery, he might just fly up to the ceiling to get away from Norman. May gritted her teeth. She couldn’t bear to watch the slimy scientist stand so close to her baby.

Ben seemed to agree. His hands wear stiff, pressed to the sides of his thighs as though he was consciously holding back from lunging at Norman.

Peter rolled his jacket up to expose the inside of his elbow. Norman turned his back on May and bent over Peter’s arm, needle dangerously poised.

May flailed her head, hair coming loose from her bun. Ben looked up, blinking at the glass, almost catching her eyes. But she knew he couldn’t see her.

“ _Ben!_ ” she shrieked, huffing her lungs out. Norman might not be able to hear her, but what if Ben and Peter could? Their hearing was far sharper.

“He’s going to inject Peter’s blood into me!” she yelled. Ben frowned, staring at glass and then at Norman. She couldn’t be sure if he understood.

**“Peter’s blood!”** she screamed, feeling her throat protest. “He’s testing it!”

Ben’s eyes frantically darted from Norman to her. He mouthed, _‘Peter?’_

“Yes! His blood!” 

She stopped to suck in a gulp of air, trying to settle her racing heart. Norman seemed sure that nothing would go wrong with the transfusion, but every molecule in May’s body knew she had to stop it. 

“Ow!” Peter yelped, making everyone jump.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Norman scolded him. 

Ben took a step forward, shaking minutely. “You’re getting what you want, Norman. Don’t hurt him anymore.”

Norman inserted the IV fully in and watched as the blood flowed into the tube, filling the bag up. “Your boy’s stronger than you know, Ben. A little needle won’t bring him down.”

Her heart was thumping fast. May wasn’t sure what was making her blood pressure rise, Peter’s cry of pain or blood flowing out of his body? Irritation and fear bled into anger. 

How _dare_ that pathetic excuse of a worm go anywhere near her child.

Blood roared in her ears. Her throat was painfully stuck with a lump the size of her heart it seemed. Her shoulder ached but it didn’t seem as important as before. May grabbed the ends of the armrests, squeezing so tightly, she felt the wood creak, splintering below her arm. 

Ben and Peter looked up to face her. Norman reacted, looking at Ben strangely before watching the glass as well. Watching his face turn ugly made her heart stop. His nostrils flared and he opened a lapel of his coat to bring out a handgun.

She gasped. Peter flinched violently and Ben froze at the sight of it.

“Ben,” Norman said, holding up the weapon expertly. “Is there something you’re hiding?”

He kept the gun lax in his hand, pointed at the floor but his gaze turned to Ben’s.

“Please don’t,” Peter whispered, starting to shake. He went pale and began to sweat. “Please don’t hurt him.”

Norman guffawed. He actually had the nerve to laugh at the situation.

“Peter! Petey-boy! Do you understand how simple and weak people like _him_ are?” Norman viciously pointed at Ben with the gun. “One bullet could take him out. But for us? You and me? We’re different. We’re better. Better than the weak and the diseased, better than the fallow beings, the Homo Sapiens who think they’re the rulers of the world.”

Ben was still focused on the gun, having gone inert at the sight of it. May couldn’t imagine what he was going through at the moment. Was he reliving the memory of being shot, of being so close to death just a couple of days ago?

“Or,” Norman continued. “Or am I wrong and Ben is one of us? Tell me, Bennie Parker. Can you hear your wife through the sound-proof glass?”

_Lie_ , May thought desperately. _Please lie, Ben!_

But Ben hesitated too long before saying, “No.”

“No,” Norman repeated, throwing an arm around a hyperventilating Peter. “Would you stake your life on that answer, Ben?”

May began to cry. Norman gripped the gun tightly, ready to fire it at either Ben or Peter.

Ben couldn’t say anything. His eyes were wide and almost bloodshot. The gun was far too close to Peter’s shaking body and Norman had a manic glow to his eyes. May sobbed, wrenching her body in the chair to free herself. The zip ties cut into both of her wrists, now leaving sharp red wounds all the way around. If she tried to yank her arms, the ties were sure to free her of both hands.

“Would you stake Peter’s life on that?” Norman asked casually. He raised the gun and tapped the barrel against Peter’s temple.

May snapped.

She reared forwards, torso bending as much as she could to clamp her teeth over the armrests. With a horrific display of power, she bit into it, teeth crushing into the hardened wood, breaking the entire thing free from the chair. The sound was loud enough to squeeze through the sound-proof room and snap Ben out of his frozen state.

Norman was still unaware of what she’d done. May bit down on the second arm-rest, freeing her other hand. With the wood shredded, she wriggled out of the zip ties and kneeled on the ground to bite through the wooden leg of the chair.

“Norman,” Ben said, unyielding. “Please get the gun away from him.”

The armed maniac stood up, at attention, smirking now. “I thought I smelled it on you. I wasn’t sure at first… but of course. Fucking Richard soiled the samples with _his_ blood!”

Peter used his bony elbow to jamm it into Norman’s stomach. The blow caught him off guard and the gun went off. Ben shot to the side, _dodging_ the bullet. It flew into one of the glass tubes, embedding itself into it. 

The deafening noise made Peter flinch and cry. He accidentally yanked the tube, the needle moving injudiciously. Ben removed a small satchel from inside his bulky jacket, tossed it to Peter, simultaneously rugby tackling Norman right into the wall.

The wall cracked and Norman roared.

May’s jaw was aching by the time she was free. She jumped from the broken chair, hobbling to the door to the side. It was locked, so she used all her might to throw her uninjured shoulder into it. It shuddered, so she did it again and the hinges snapped off, the door nearly falling out of its frame.

_Oh gods_ , May thought, getting back to her feet. If she was this strong, then Norman—

She turned to watch said man kick Ben solidly in the chest. Ben flew back, right between the other glass tubes, crashing into the opposite wall. Peter yelped and Norman pounced on the gun that had fallen to the floor.

May ran, feet pumping. She crossed twenty feet in seconds, flying through the air and body-slamming into Norman before he could get the weapon. He growled in anger, landing on his side before rolling over her to punch her full in the face.

Her head snapped to the side and May shrieked, pain bursting from her face. He threw another punch at her broken collarbone and this time, felt like he’d driven a live wire into her shoulder and chest.

May’s throat strained to the max as she screamed, hands pushing him away to make the agony like fire die away, but it only seemed to increase it. With black and blue spots dancing behind her eyelids she thought she was about to die.

“Get away from her!” Peter shouted, swinging the short metal blood bag stand right at Norman’s back.

His weight bore heavily on her, but almost immediately disappeared with a shout from Ben who must have yanked him off of her.

It didn’t matter, though. May couldn’t see him, couldn’t see anything except for fireworks flashing all around her, initiated by her fractured bones. Her breaths were short and stunted, every gasp taking her away from Peter’s scrambling hands and tears.

“May!” he cried, trying to touch her face, but May couldn’t hear her boy over the scream of her own body trying to adjust with the injury. She was still shrieking.

“Aunt May, I’m gonna carry you!” Peter yelled, slipping his arms beneath her back and knees. The floor left her and May shouted when he jostled her shoulder around.

“Sorry!” Peter said somberly, running to the sliding door. 

Norman let out a roar of pure rage. May distantly heard a blow of metal and a gunshot. Peter’s sprint faltered and she could hear his heart stuttering wildly.

And then Peter cried out, dropping to the floor with May. She slammed to the ground, hip hitting the tiles. 

“Pete…” May croaked, blindly reaching out for him. She couldn’t understand what was going on and thinking past the pain took a paramount effort.

She cracked a swollen eye open and saw Peter curled up in a fetal position, hands clapped over his ears, eves screwed shut, throat straining, shoulders rigid, and legs tucked into his front. He was the picture of malaise.

May tried to turn over to reach for Peter who looked frozen in anguish from whatever was affecting him. She could barely stretch an arm, when Norman hobbled over to her, towering over Peter. 

She stared at him in terror. He was panting heavily, sporting a black eye and a deep cut over his forehead. He clutched the strange silver pen that was definitely not a pen, the blood bag with the closed tube still trailing after it, and a disposable syringe.

“Please,” May cried even as he grabbed her arm and hoisted her over to sit against the cold wall in a slouch. She looked past him and saw Ben crumpled on the floor beside the control panel, also in obvious pain. He wasn’t dead, but there was blood on his jacket and he was moving sluggishly.

“Norman,” May gasped as he brought up a fresh syringe. “Wait! Wait, please don’t—”

“I’m saving you!” Norman yelled. “How can you be so stupid, May?! I’m doing this for you, for the world! I’m going to heal you!”

He filled the syringe with blood, tapping the barrel to clear the deep red fluid of air bubbles. May sucked in a breath as he grabbed her arm again, inserting the needle in and pushing the plunger down.

It was sharp. The blood was cool but she could feel it making its way into the veins, up her arm, and to the heart.

May dropped her head to the side to look over at Peter, still curled over in desperation and agony. The skin ached as the needle was yanked out. She felt the air get stuffy.

Norman sat back, eyes suddenly gleaming with relief and wild hope.

“They’ll be fine,” he hissed, grinning. “I told you, all three of you can walk out of here if you cooperate. I’ll let you go now. Within a day or two, we’ll know for sure how you react to the introduction of the sample. We already know that it’s human-compatible now, we just need to be sure it’s pan-human compatible.”

He raised the silver pen in the air and clicked it. Peter’s body stopped twitching. May watched, with a dry mouth and stale consciousness, as he opened and closed his fists, blinking wide in shock.

Norman grinned at him. “Hey, Petey. Sorry about the sonic pen, but it was quite necessary. Go on. Take your aunt and uncle back home. Don’t go to the hospital. Trust me, they won’t be of any help at this stage.”

Slowly stretching his legs out, Peter pushed himself off the cold floor, crawling towards May. She tried to focus on him, tried to scan him to see if there was lasting damage by whatever it was Norman had done with the pen, but it was hard to gather her wits and focus. Her brain felt gooey, ceiling lights growing brighter in her vision. She was starting to slip away, strange dizziness taking over her entire being.

“Oh no,” Peter whispered, his head snapping up. Norman frowned and looked to where her nephew was staring. May tried to look as well.

It didn’t make sense. Everything was going blurry so all she could see was a random spot on the wall, high above the floor, slowly growing black, like it was being eaten away by something.

The black form made an odd assortment of clicking noises, growing larger by the second.

Norman’s jaw fell open. He scrambled for the sonic pen, but Peter leaped across May, knocking the shiny object out of his hands.

The dark silhouette covered the wall like a massive shadow, splitting into two now. One part slid down the wall and onto the floor, moving to Ben. The other part was making its way over to relief-stricken Peter, a furious Norman, and a fading May.

Or maybe she wasn’t fading, just going sick and crazy because May swore she could hear random words being tossed about by the tiniest of voices from within the shadow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Implied animal cruelty. Non-consensual syringe injection


	3. Insidious Players

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the other side of the room, Ben held onto the control panel, managing to stand up. May felt like she could breathe now, watching him stumble towards them.
> 
> The skin below his eyes was blackened by Norman’s punches. There was some tearing and bleeding and his pupils were blown wide. He cupped May’s face in both his hands, eyes filled with tears.
> 
> “May, baby,” he whispered and her heart broke. “What hurts? Tell me what—”
> 
> “He used the blood,” Peter said, rubbing his eyes on May’s sleeve. “He did it.”
> 
> “It’s okay. I think I’m fine,” May said, her hands trembling from the cold. She reached up to touch Ben’s heated face.
> 
> “He used mine,” Peter whispered, terrified.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, heyyyyyyyyyyy there.  
> Do I have an excuse for the 5 month haitus? Yup. Was super busy. And I lost the momentum for this story. It was tragic.  
> Do I have a plan to end this? Yup. One more chapter after this update, hopefully can get it done in Jan.  
> I hope your days have been great and the new year brings better luck and hope for everyone.  
> :)

The spiders were back.

May’s head reeled. She tried to keep track of Peter, who’d been right in front of her one moment and had disappeared in the next. So many things were happening at once.

There were noises in her head - clicking sounds building up to a crescendo. Her blood burned with the intensity of ice and her limbs were frozen. May’s body slumped sideways, head hitting the floor. The air wasn’t coming fast enough. She was suffocating.

There were noises outside her head too. The spiders were squealing, panicked at the sight of Ben struggling to stand, and terrified of watching their tormentor fight Peter to gain control of the sonic pen.

**Pain.**

The floor was cold against her cheek. If May closed her eyes and retreated, she could hear the furious pumping of her heart, beating faster to fight whatever had taken hold of her cells. She wasn’t sure if these were her last moments, but it felt like it.

Ben would be fine. He knew how to take care of Peter, knew how to handle taxes and bills, and stock the shelves with cans, buy groceries for enough home-cooked meals for the week. 

**Pain.**

Her heart began to speed up. Any faster and May might go into cardiac arrest. The pain couldn’t even be called that, because her blood was freezing and her nerve endings were fried.

They’d be fine.

**Pain, May?**

She tried to blink. What?

**Hurt, May?**

Peter?

**Hurt, hurt, hurt!**

The clicking sounds went on. May moved her hand, knuckles dragging across the floor. The grooves between the tiles knocked against her skin, but May couldn’t really focus on that. There were other sounds, new ones making their way through her brain.

**Hurt May. Call Ben? Call Peter?**

Those words were very deliberate and urgent. May turned her head to push her forehead on the cold floor and carefully peeled an eyelid open.

Tiny, spindly legs scuttled over the floor beside her hand and face. Several pairs of them lingered in front of her. May sucked in a painful gulp of air and opened her other eye.

The spiders were here and they were forming a dangerous-looking wall of nightmares between Norman and her. Even Peter had pushed himself away, silver pen tight in his hand.

“May!” He gasped, scrambling towards her now. “Can you hear me? Can you sit up?”

His voice was very clear and loud. May winced, trying to get her hands to brace on the floor. Her muscles shook, but she managed to push herself to sit against the wall, leaning on Peter’s shoulder. He clutched her tight, burying his face in her neck.

“Petey?” May croaked, reaching up to touch his hair. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! I’m fine! What about you? Did he do it? Did he inject it?”

May blinked slowly, brain moving like an unbothered turtle. The pain was receding, but the dizziness was ever-present. She examined her hands, scanning the inside of her elbow. The skin was slightly swollen and red, a small unnatural point of puncture against her freckles.

“Oh no,” Peter whispered, anguish audibly raising her BP.

She turned away, now looking at the rising tower. The spiders were climbing over each other, forming a dense block of wriggly arachnids, blockading a terrified Norman into the corner. 

On the other side of the room, Ben held onto the control panel, managing to stand up. May felt like she could breathe now, watching him stumble towards them.

The skin below his eyes was blackened by Norman’s punches. There was some tearing and bleeding and his pupils were blown wide. He cupped May’s face in both his hands, eyes filled with tears.

“May, baby,” he whispered and her heart broke. “What hurts? Tell me what—”

“He used the blood,” Peter said, rubbing his eyes on May’s sleeve. “He did it.”

“It’s okay. I think I’m fine,” May said, her hands trembling from the cold. She reached up to touch Ben’s heated face.

“He used mine,” Peter whispered, terrified. “What if that’s bad? What if—”

“No time to argue, let’s get out now!” Ben said, pulling May to her feet. She wobbled, trying to hold on to the wall, but was suddenly distracted by a sharp pinging sensation in the back of her neck. 

It was sharp, like a trickle of electricity had tapped the top of her spine. In a choreographed move, it seemed, all three Parkers turned around to watch Norman grab a fire extinguisher from the wall. He raised it and hit the heavy cylinder against the glass tube that contained the poor cow in it.

The spiders seemed to perk up at the smell of prey nearby. May watched a wave of interest flood their keen senses. Norman was trying to coax them away from the Parkers.

“You’re so stupid to not realize this?” He hissed, wielding the extinguisher like a deadly weapon. “You think it’s just some spider-communication, super-strength Gatorade?”

“Norman,” Ben warned. “Just… just let us go.”

“I did! I did let you go!” he yelled. “I let Peter get away from my building after he stole my drive. I promised to let all three of you walk away after I gave May the dose and you still wanted to screw it up! The spiders are nothing but a stepping stone to what we need to truly succeed at. They’re not the final result, we are! Look at them, slave to their own needs.”

The spiders were clicking hungrily now, slowly making their way to the cow. Peter began to whisper under his breath. “Come back. Don’t go near it. It’s not food. Not food!”

The cow began to moo loudly, hooves pawing nervously at the curved pit. It could tell that a hive of predators was nearby. It’s tail hit the glass interior and the spiders crawled over the wall, moving closer to it.

“They don't actually care about you,” Norman sneered. “What, did you think you’d acquired a thousand new pets? They get dangerously hungry every other week; they’ll eat anything that moves. You fail to feed them quick enough, they’ll eat you too. I’ve seen the footage for Peter. He fell into the spider pit on his field trip here. Be glad we’d fed them a full meal in the morning or they’d have devoured him whole.”

May gripped Peter’s shirt, twisting a fist in it to keep him beside her. Peter was shaking, reaching out to the spiders.

“We’ll go,” he whispered. “We’ll leave.”

“May stays back,” Norman said.

All three froze. May felt a shock of cold needles break her skin, feeling stabbed everywhere.

“No,” Ben stammered. “You… You just said now… you said you’re letting us go.”

“On the condition that you listen to me! And you didn’t! You tried to run, tried to ruin everything!”

“Norman—”

“How can you still not understand what I’m trying to do here!” Norman shouted at them, face turning an ugly red. “Everything I’ve done here, is so far ahead of what we as a species have ever achieved. This is much more advanced than anything comprehendible by the simple-minded. Peter, you know what I’m talking about! You’ve seen the notes on my project. You’ve been in the drive. You know how far I’ve come and how much more is possible. We are far ahead in the game, the players who are guaranteed to win with this! The true blue serum will be left in the dust by the time I’m done. The Oz Formula will take over the world by storm!”

Norman’s arms shook so badly that he didn’t even try to give them a moment’s reprieve before aiming the fire extinguisher’s pipe at the spiders.

“ _Move!_ ” Peter screamed. The spiders scrambled back in a mad dash towards the Parkers, squealing even as Norman sprayed a gush of CO2 foam at them. 

May’s breathing hitched. She could _hear_ the little creatures. She could hear the pained shrieks and insane choking when some of the spiders were covered in foam, unable to breathe or move, completely submerged in the white mess of carbon dioxide.

Ben lunged with a shout, tackling the man again, trying to wrestle the extinguisher away. Peter dived down, pushing the foam away to swipe as many spiders onto dry ground, but it was already too late for some. May saw the tiny inert bodies of the arachnids, on their backs, legs curled in the air.

The rest of the spiders were screaming from the sight and smell of their dead brethren. May didn’t know what to do, what to even process. 

**Pain! Pain!**

**Mad human!**

**Pain! Run!**

**Pain! Kill!**

**Bite!**

**Kill!**

“No!” May gasped, rushing to stop the spiders, but they were already jumping onto the ceiling to crawl towards Norman and Ben still wrestling.

What would happen if the spiders bit Norman? Would he grow to be as strong as them? Would he suffer? Would they suffer?

Ben kicked Norman in the gut, but the scientist roared in anger and swung at his head. The heavy fire extinguisher collided against Ben’s skull with a _bang!_ He crumpled to the floor in pain and it enraged the spiders even more, pushing May over the edge now. 

The spiders began dropping onto Norman. With every angry click of their limbs, they sank their fangs into the skin of his neck and face, crowding into his hair, falling over his eyes, slipping into the lab coat, down his shirt, crawling over his hands, moving everywhere over him and _biting, biting, biting_ , over and over again till Norman was _screaming_ like he’s on fire.

_Throw him over_ , May thinks.

The mound of spiders covered half of Norman who was jerking back, hitting the wave of teeth and legs scuttling all over him. He panicked and bellowed as the spiders pushed him out of the lab, breaking open the door, following her order. 

And then Norman, eyes closed tight against the hoard of arachnid and agony, backed his spine against the railing of the corridor. He tipped over it, arms flailing and fell three floors down to the lobby.

May heard the sickening _thud_ as his body slammed against the floor. His heart beats erratically in her ear. She watched the spiders scuttle away from the corridor, gathering close to her now, still full of adrenaline and anger.

Peter froze in the act of helping Ben to his feet. They stared at the empty point in the corridor, past the lab door where Norman was last seen.  
  


May pushed away from the wall and hobbled over to Ben’s other side. The trio slowly made their way out of the lab, carefully taking the stairs since the elevator usage was logged in the company’s server.

On the floor, Norman lay still and bloody. His body was twisted, spine strangely misaligned. There’s a small pool of blood around his head like a gruesome halo. The stench of it was cold, metallic, and sharp in her nose.

But more than that, it was the state of his skin that was most horrifying. Every part of it was covered in pockmarked red blisters, broken due to repeated spider bites. It reminded May of Peter’s back that had some of the bite marks, but this was far worse. There was a terrible green tinge to the man’s tone like he’d been poisoned.

“Peter, don’t look,” May whispered. Ben’s arm around him came up to push Peter’s face into Ben’s shoulder.

“Go wait outside the door with the spiders. Make sure to get every single one to come to you,” Ben said, patting his shoulder. Peter’s eyes which had been screwed shut blinked open. He looked a little sick. He nodded and left Ben’s embrace, raising an arm towards their army of spiders. There were enough of them left after Norman’s horrific extinguisher act, but the population difference was still apparent.

Ben and May knelt beside the man’s head. His heart sounded sluggish now, as though the blood was congealing in the veins. The ground around his head had microscopic cracks made from the fall, from the reinforced skull hitting the ground. It felt like her eyes had unlocked the special zoom features to focus on miniscule details that were otherwise invisible in a human’s vision.

“He won’t make it,” Ben said, his voice low and worried. 

May gritted her teeth. “His bones are strong like ours, right? He’s cracked the floor—”

“The bites, May,” Ben insisted. “Look, the venom’s not compatible with his blood. Can’t you smell it?”

May leaned in, closing her eyes. Her ears were assaulted with the noises around her, the tiny hearts beating from all the spiders, the clicking sounds they made, the rush of air Peter let out, along with his own pulse still too fast for a normal rate, Ben’s own breathing, his heart thudding right beside hers…

_No, focus on the smell._

May inhaled forcefully, trying to pick up as much as she could. Ben seemed to be better at it, but she got what he’d said. The scent of the blood was tampered by the heavy taste of something slimy and reptilian and all that was absolutely marred by the venom of the spiders that was reacting badly with the enhancement Norman had given himself as part of Trial One.

It made her choke on the stale air pushing herself away from the dying body.

“You’re right! He won’t—” she lowered her voice abruptly giving Peter a quick look. “We need to get out of here. If someone finds out, we’re all going to be locked up!”

Ben stared at her. “May… we can’t leave him here.”

Her jaw dropped. “What are you… what the hell, Ben?! We can absolutely leave him to rot! He nearly killed all of us!”

He caught her arm in urgency. “May, this serum he’s worked on? The spiders? They’re all part of Richard and Mary’s experimentation.”

May stumbled back, stunned. “Richard… what d’you mean?”

“They worked in Oscorp, remember! It was this, the Oz Formula! We saw Mary’s accounts in the drive that Peter had stolen from Modell. It was her handwritten notes. And the formula that changed the venom in the spiders? It had Richard’s blood in it. That’s why Norman couldn’t get it right. He needed Peter’s blood, or mine, whichever was purer closer to Richie’s.”

Ben’s explanation made sense of the impossible things that had happened. May sucked in a quick breath. “That’s what he wanted to test on me! He gave me the green thing, the Oz thing. It was smoke in the car… but then the syringe.”

“Peter’s blood,” Ben nodded. “I can still smell it. Our plan was to switch the bags. Modell helped us. I had a pint of my blood withdrawn and he doctored it to a degree that would mess up his formula and counteract it…”

He stopped himself. May knew at once where his mind went.

“The bag’s still up there,” Ben said, eyes growing wide. “We could… we could still give him the transfusion of my blood… that could save him right?”

May couldn’t believe the audacity of this man. “ _Why_ do you want to save him?”

Ben stared back as though _she_ were being unreasonable. “Because we can. We should. The serum might have made him unstable enough to hurt us. And what about Harry? We can’t just let his father die!”

“Being a father is not a redeeming quality,” May snapped. “It doesn’t mean he should deserve to live after nearly killing us!”

Ben shook his head, so stubborn and bone-headed, May wanted to scream.

“May—”

“No, Ben! Leave him, we have to get out of here!”

“We can’t make Harry an orphan.”

May crushed the tiled beneath her palms, fingers digging into the broken pieces. She groaned, her thoughts plagued by the face of little Harry dressed for a funeral on a cold, windy day, the same way Peter had once been.

“I’m saying this again, he tried to kill us!”

“I know! But… but if he dies, don’t you think there would be a really severe investigation launched for this? What if they find us, May?”

_‘They’_ meant the government, the military, whoever was funding Norman for his research, the teams that would definitely want to know what happened. And if they found out that this was a murder…

May shuddered. The thought of insidious third parties hunting them was unbearable.

“Say we save him,” she started. “What if he still comes after us?”

Ben looked up at the lab, three floors above them. “We destroy everything. The drive, it’s still in his pocket.”

He patted down Norman’s lab coat, searching for the portable drive and finding it in an inside seam. The little device drew their attention.

“Everything, Ben,” May said. “He shouldn’t be able to start even from the middle.”

“The extinguisher,” Ben said, eyes lighting up. May swallowed. “You wanna start a fire?”

“Best way to cover everything up. People will think he jumped to escape it. And Modell is still out on the highway, waiting for us,” Ben whispered, his head tilted towards the front doors. May’s hearing doesn’t feel as sharp as Ben’s but his heart rate is slowing from the panicked speed before.

“Then we’ll get him to scrub all the information. Everything goes.”

Even if this meant Norman himself would come after them, May knew that it would help them in the long run. With this rudimentary plan to get Norman help and escape without anyone coming after them, they set to work. 

She kissed his bloody cheek. “I love you, Parker. Now let’s cover up a crime scene.”

**~~~~~**


	4. Oz Formula

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We’ve been following the news,” Ben said. “The DODC were at the scene.”
> 
> “Yes, but they won’t have any footage to root through,” Max explained. “I’d taken the cameras in the building offline so no footage at all from the night. The only videos they have are from the day when Norman locked the cow in. He’d snuck May in through the back, I’m assuming because I combed through the files but there was no sign of you on camera.”
> 
> May’s shoulders relaxed by an infinitesimal amount. No footage, no proof.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go! The last chapter to this instalment, but are we done? A comment on the story had me thinking of the Avengers getting involved and then I couldn't stop thinking about it. Soooooo, the next fic will be the last one where Avengers mid-Captain America: Civil War characters are in the fourth fic. Still laying out the blueprints for it.  
> Enjoy!

**HL FIRE: MORE TO UNCOVER?** **  
****\- R. Robertson** **  
  
**

_This past week has seen debacles regarding the_ **_Horizon Labs_ ** _fire reaching some prominent names in the industry. HL is a smaller enterprise under the Dominion Board of Directors overseeing_ **_Osborn Industries_ ** _. Following the animal testing allegations on Oscorp, concerned activists have taken up the stage to focus on similar charges against HL. On the night of the incident, emergency services were called in by_ **_Dr. Max Modell_ ** _, a project manager of the Genetics Division. Dr. Modell having been alerted to the security system failing at 10 pm on Monday, had driven over to the facility to find the third laboratory floor on fire._

_Modell and the emergency crew found Osborn unconscious in the lobby in a bid to escape the flames. Suffering from a minor fracture in his skull and vertebrae along with smoke inhalation, he was immediately shifted to the closest ICU in the city. Aside from the damage and the casualty, a cow was found in the lab beside a broken window. Fortunately, the animal suffered very minimal smoke inhalation and absolutely no burns. The debris in the lab did not contain salvageable material which begs the question of the legality and safety of the experiment that was being undertaken by one man._ _  
  
_

**_Rajit Ratha_ ** _, one of the executives of Oscorp had this to say: “Horizon Labs have always been kept apart from the goals and research of Oscorp. The fact that Norman Osborn had attempted to drag HL through the mud is a sign of shame on the company’s management. He will face his due consequence for endangering animal life, his life, and damaging company resources for the sake of science. The buck must stop somewhere and this is it.”_ _  
  
_

_Animal rights activists were pleased to know that the cow that had miraculously escaped the flames, was shifted to a recovery farm on New York city limits. Newly named Lucky, she will be cared for and never see the inside of a cage or a lab again._ _  
  
_

_Osborn is under intensive care where medical professionals have deemed his recovery stable, yet optimistic. His lawyers have been authorized to give transparent reports which will be utilized in the upcoming court case. His son, Harry Osborn (14), could not be reached for comment._

**~~~**

They dug into their burgers. Sub Haven was crowded as usual, and there was less chance to be overheard unless a fourteen-year-old enhanced kid was spying on you. Luckily, May and Ben had equally alert senses (Ben even more so) as they scouted the place till satisfaction was guaranteed.

Max waited for their go-ahead. Soon, Ben looked away from the people and nodded. 

“We’re better off than I hoped,” Max began. May was relieved but kept her armor shiny, ready for battle.

“The Board wants to close the case as soon as they can. With everything going on in Oscorp, HL’s issue might be the straw that breaks their backs. And they know this.”

“We’ve been following the news,” Ben said. “The DODC were at the scene.”

“Yes, but they won’t have any footage to root through,” Max explained. “I’d taken the cameras in the building offline so no footage at all from the night. The only videos they have are from the day when Norman locked the cow in. He’d snuck May in through the back, I’m assuming because I combed through the files but there was no sign of you on camera.”

May’s shoulders relaxed by an infinitesimal amount. No footage, no proof.

“Some of the channels also mentioned your name though,” she pointed out.

“I haven’t been charged with anything. As far as Hector knows I wasn’t involved at all that night, so I can’t be pinned. He’s backing me… I hate lying to him, but once this is over, we can put it behind us…”

Max frowned down at his burger. May was privately glad that she had Ben by her side. She wasn’t sure if she could handle all this alone. The Parkers were a team, always had been.

“How’s Norman?” Ben whispered. May’s ears picked up the rise in Max’s heart rate.

“Still out. You… the blood transfusion saved his life,” Max breathed wide-eyed. “I haven’t been able to get into any of the hospital’s secure files, but I’m fairly sure that the staff wouldn’t have detected any enhancement in his system. Your blood with the DNA reversal eliminated the Oz Formula’s effects in his body.”

Ben nodded, exhaling. May chose not to say anything.

“When he wakes up, though…” Max said, nervous. “He won’t be happy. I can’t predict what he might try. On one hand, with the source of the raging issue removed, he probably won’t make any drastic decisions...”

“He’ll also be a bit preoccupied with the Board, I take it,” May added.

“Yes… Public pressure is pushing the DODC for investigation and immediate culprits. And the Board is anxious to shift the blame to Norman,” Max said.

Ben scowled. “How easy to blame an unconscious man for everything.”

“Especially since 80% of it is his fault,” May said, a little forceful. Ben frowned but didn’t offer a rebuttal.

They spoke for some more time, delving into less intense topics. With Norman out of the picture, Max was in the running to head the entirety of Horizon Labs. For the first time, in a long time, the man would be in charge of his life and the difference was apparent. May could see the healthy pallor of his skin, his shoulders not as hunched as before, his hair a brighter red, his eyes carrying more life and enthusiasm.

They finished up lunch and headed outdoors to part ways. Before Max bid them goodbye, he handed over one of the most important reasons for their meeting.

“This should be good for the week,” Max said, leading them to his car. There was a small trawler with an icebox hooked up to his Toyota.

“We’ll need a consistent supply,” May warned, sniffing at the icebox discreetly. The meat was packed well enough, no smell leaked out.

“And more of it in a few weeks,” Ben sighed. He leaned down to decouple the car and trawler.

“Oh god,” Max whispered, movements slowing. “Is it… are they…”

“Sacs are very active,” was all May would explain. Max shuddered. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll up the number… just let me know in advance… and will you be okay?”

Ben smiled. “We’re good. Thanks for the drop, Max. See you around.”

Max nodded, head moving in jerks. Leaving him to his good fortune, Ben pulled on the trawler, leading it with ease. Passers-by may assume that the icebox could hold a crate of drinks for a house party, unaware that it was far heavier than it looked.

May wound a hand around Ben’s elbow, the couple crossing the parking lot without any diversions. They hooked up the trawler to their car and May shook her wallet for the car keys.

They drove into the traffic and put on light music all the way to Midtown High.

Three tiny spiders, Finn, Poe, and Rey, clambered from the dashboard onto May’s knuckles. She didn’t take her eyes off the road but smiled and the excited chirps.

“Oh, you know it’s almost feeding time, huh?” Ben chuckled, letting a small cluster of spiders scuttle up under his jacket sleeve. The arachnids clicked, high noises and words emerging.

**Food?** **  
****  
****Hungry!** **  
****  
****Food! Now! Food!**

“Let’s pick up Peter first, kiddos,” May reminded them. They got even giddier at the sound of Peter’s name. Ben had to calm them down quickly as they slowed in front of the school.

It was twenty minutes past the last class of the day. Most students were on their way out, leaving a few to mingle for last-minute chats. May spotted Peter easily, with his new Avengers backpack, by the gate. He was with Ned and Michelle, all three talking to a sullen Harry.

The spiders clicked at the presence of Harry, but Ben shushed them again. May could sniff no odd reptilian scent from the boy, which helped her settle the spiders.

“... or try out the new Legends of Zelda release?” Ned was saying. “You can come over and we can just go to town! It’s a new console—”

“Thanks, Ned,” Harry muttered, still frowning at his shoes. “But I can’t stay out. Bernard says I need to go straight home from school for the next few weeks till the whole thing with the media dies down.”

“Oh… we can still play if you have the game,” Ned tried.

“I don’t… but we can play something else I guess?”

“Cool! There are tons of things we can try—”

“Hey kids,” May called out from the car and gave Harry a reprieve from answering. Ned didn’t mind the interruption and immediately waved at them. Peter looked relieved as well and Michelle started to dig through her bag, in search of something.

“Hey May! Hi, Ben!” Peter said loudly, holding onto the strap of his bag as he bid the others goodbye. Ben took his time, noting a pamphlet for a job opening taped to a notice board by the gate. 

“Hello, Harry. Are you doing okay?” May asked, feeling a little callous. After all the advocating she’d done to leave Norman to his doom, she was glad that Ben had made the right call. She couldn’t have faced the boy if Norman had died at Horizon Labs.

Harry shrugged. “Eh.”

“How’s your dad? We haven’t been able to visit him, but we’ll send flowers—”

“He isn’t awake, though,” Harry said, cutting her off. “And they aren’t letting anyone visit him. I haven’t seen him yet.”

May’s hand felt sweaty, awkwardness coursing through her. “Oh, dear…”

“Harry,” Ben murmured. “If you need anything, food or company… you have people to call?”

“Yeah…”

“We can come over too!” Ned asked hopefully. Peter nodded, head moving so fast it was almost a blur. Michelle elbowed him but pretended to not notice, finally extracting a DVD case from her bag.

“Here you go,” she said with no further explanation. Harry accepted it completely taken off guard. “What’s it?”

“A TV show you can binge-watch. You said you were wondering where the line _‘Whatchu talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?!’_ came from.” She tapped on the case titled _Diff'rent Strokes_ seasons 1 to 4. 

Ned cleared his throat and said, “Whatchu talkin’ ‘bout, MJ?!”

May wasn’t sure if she was following the conversation properly but decided not to say anything else. Harry was surprised but curious about the DVD. He didn’t look so somber anymore, so that was nice.

“See you tomorrow,” Peter said, shooting them all a nervous smile. Ned clapped his hand and Michelle nodded. Harry waved the case at him as a limo drove up behind them.

The Parkers pulled away from the school and Peter opened his bag, letting a large cluster of spiders scuttle out, clambering all over him.

“Peter,” Ben said with a frown. “I told you. Ten or less only.”

“But I can’t choose between them!”

“Then you won’t take the spiders with you,” May said, driving south. “It’s too dangerous for them. What if someone accidentally sees them or…”

Or step on them, but she didn’t say it out loud. This was New York. People will kill cockroaches and spiders without a second thought. Or maybe they did that around the world as well.

Peter slouched in the back seat. Ben looked at him through the mirror. “We’re still figuring things out, Pete. Let’s be cautious for now.”

“Fine…” He picked at the seams, staring curiously at the Avengers line up on the bag. “Harry said that his dad’s been getting a lot of bad press. They might move to the UK if it gets worse.”

May experienced a surge in joy. She tamped it down quickly before the others could sense it. “Is that something he thinks or is his father awake?”

“No, still out. It’s just something he’s worried about.”

“Norman doesn’t have his powers anymore. Max confirmed it,” Ben said with steely eyes. “And with all the base formulae destroyed, he’ll have nowhere to pick up his work from.”

“We’ll be fine,” May nodded, sharing a look with him. She reached over the gear and took his hand.

Peter stayed quiet for a little longer before saying, “How much meat’s in the box?”

“Enough for the week. We’ll need to up it by at least three times when the sacs break,” Ben said, a smile growing now. May chuckled, as Peter looked invigorated again, bouncing up to tell them what he’d read on websites to take care of jumping spiders.

“... so they aren’t exactly Sac spiders, but many species build silk sacs to store clumps of eggs in a certain place, or sometimes the female just attaches the clump to her body so the eggs stay with her till they’re ready to hatch.”

“What did it say about food supply?” Ben asked. Peter launched into a whole new debacle as May took a detour from their regular route back to Queens. The car went onto a less populated neighborhood till they reached an abandoned train line with a broken barrier. Peter sat up, scanning the surrounding for anyone watching. Ben pricked his ears to listen for any cameras rolling, or CCTV lenses whirring.

“Clear,” he said. May drove over the debris of the barrier, turning the car onto the train rails. Tires bumped over small rocks, the icebox tumbling about in the trawler behind them.

“Too loud,” Peter whispered, worried. 

“Can’t hear anything else though,” Ben said. “We can nail down the box next time.”  
  


May parked the car in the darkness, out of sight from the world. The spiders clicked happily, smelling the unused tunnel that they now call home.

Ben unhooked the trawler while Peter and May threw an old tarp over the car. The shadows hid it well and the trio set off into the musky darkness of the old rail line. Peter hopped over the lines and May ran her hand over the wall, searching for the nook that they’d marked before. 

“Got it,” she said before digging her fingers into the stone wall and pushing. The huge ledge budged, creaking lowly. The makeshift door moved slowly under her strength. Peter grabbed the lip of the door from the other side and pulled, the entire thing moving to reveal a small opening in the wall.

Peter grinned and she could see his delight in the darkness. “We have a secret lair of our own!”

Ben echoed his cheeriness, lifting the icebox from the trawler. The spiders now left them, all crawling into the hole and out of sight. Peter ducked, entering the claustrophobic space and quickly scrambling through. Ben was next, maneuvering the box into the hole before bending half over to fit into it. May took a last look back into the dark but airy tunnel before following them. She fit herself in the hole and braced her hands on the wall, slowly pulling the giant stone ledge back into place.

The small space was a handmade made tunnel of its own, leading downwards. May trudged down finally reaching the end where light spilled over her.

Inside was their budding terrarium. It was a semi-constructed hall, twenty feet high and nearly thirty feet across. The top corners where the walls met the ceiling were fitted with glass, to let in sunlight. The ground was filled with dirt, turned over to refresh the topsoil, corn plants growing nearly as tall as Peter. The soothing green and brown hues of the earth settled the mood and proved a beautiful place for the spiders to reside.

It was one of Horizon Labs’ rejected testing grounds for hydroponics. Max had managed to find a disused place close enough to the metro line and far from the human population. It was perfect. May could see this becoming a permanent home for their spiders. It was large enough to inhabit them all, with space for plants to grow and light to affect them, creating a bioactive environment for the spiders.

Ben opened the lid of the icebox, lifting the sacks of meat with ease. They were freshly cut and the ice had not yet formed over the skin so the spiders loved it.

“My darlings,” Peter announced to their horde. “Feast!”  
  


May and Ben shot Peter a curious look, but the moment of oddity vanished as hundreds of spiders appeared from the walls and plants, scuttling over to the meat at Ben’s feet. He stepped back, placing his hands in his pockets to observe.

The three packs of meat disappeared under the rising mound of spiders that quickly covered them. May could hear the snip of fangs piercing through the hide and sinking below to suck out the fluids. They didn’t chew on the meat, but it didn’t matter. The meat quivered under the weight, losing mass as though deflating from the pricks of the venomous fangs.

She smelled the decaying insides and watched Ben nudge some of the spiders from biting each other as the frenzy continued.

“I can see it!” Peter gasped. He was looking at the wall behind a row of corn and tomato plants. May looked up and caught sight of white webby clumps of spider strands built like a woodpecker’s nest. There were several nests, many, many clumps of web attached to the plants, and extending upwards on the wall.

Ben and May walked towards the wall. It was a sight to behold. With her keen senses, May could hear the tiny wriggling of unborn spiders inside each little egg. Every clump or sac probably held twenty or so eggs. There had to be hundreds of sacs that they could see. 

“Curious babies,” Ben chuckled to himself. May saw Peter standing on his tiptoes, sniffing at the eggs. He looked supremely pleased.

“We’ll need a lot more meat,” May said, interlocking her fingers with Ben’s.

The adult spiders behind them were nearly done. Sounds of elated chirps and clicks echoed and May reached out a hand for some of the spiders to crawl up her limb. They climbed into her hair, swinging on the strands.

“Heavy bellies lead to pleasant dreams, don’t they,” Ben told the spiders. Two of the little ones, Luke and Leia, scuttled up to his shoulder while several others clung to his jacket.

Peter leaned back, Solo perched on his knuckles, his clothes already carrying several others. “I can’t wait for next week!”

Next week, the babies will be born. Next week, the spider population would explode and May knew exactly how Peter felt. Ben smiled as well. Things were looking up.

**~~~**

Agent Carter found Director Hoag behind the yellow tapes of Horizon Labs. The woman’s bright white hair was a beacon to follow. She was supervising some of the men who were packing the last of the boxes being shipped out. 

Sharon had seen her share of suspicious buildings in the aftermath of a fire. HL definitely seemed like one of them.

“Agent Carter,” Hoag said, reaching out a hand for her to shake. “Thank you for the quick response.”

“It’s no problem, Director,” Sharon nodded, back straight. “But I see your department handled most of the work. I’m not sure why you called the CIA on this.”

“The truth?” Hoag said, gesturing to Sharon to follow her. Anne Marie Hoag marched ahead, taking quick steps despite her seeming exhaustion of the day. “The truth is I would have preferred a consultation from a qualified SHIELD agent.”

Sharon didn’t falter, but the mention put her on edge. “Ma’am?”

“Please call me Hoag or Director,” Hoag said firmly. They made their way past the half-charred lobby of HL, crossing a strange dent in the tiles in the middle of the floor and heading for the stairs. The smell of burning glass and plastic lingered in the air.

“All of the evidence of what Osborn was working on, his notes on the experiments through the years, the subject matter, video tracking, saved details on his drive, everything was destroyed,” Hoag explained as they made their way up the three floors to the site of the fire. “There is not an ounce of data left behind.”

Sharon understood where they were heading for. “Almost like Osborn wanted to erase all his work.”

“Exactly like that,” the director said, huffing slightly from the exertion. “We found his fingerprints on the extinguisher he’d used. There’s a dent on the cylinder as well.”

That was odd. “A dent? Did he hit it somewhere?”

“Possibly over his own head.”

Sharon frowned. “I’m sorry?”

Hoag scoffed. “Yes, the clues aren’t matching up. The cameras were taken offline last night, we have no evidence of what happened. My team has spent the past four days trying to put together everything that could have happened leading up to the fire alarm ringing. But it’s clear that we’re missing something quite big.”

The third floor was damaged. Sharon slowed down, watching for where the floor looked weak. 

“Stick to the banister,” Hoag instructed. “The corridor is safe.”

They reached the lab entrance and Sharon wrinkled her nose against the stench of smoking electronics. There was no fire, but the smell remained.

“So far,” Hoag began. “This is what we’ve pieced together. Osborn was conducting his experiments in this lab. The cow was here as well, but no signs of harm were detected in her examination. The glass tubes are broken as you can see. The control panel is damaged beyond repair. It seems as though Osborn was busy with something that he deemed too sensitive for CCTVs. A fire broke out, he tried to put it out but instead hit himself in the head with the extinguisher. He let out the cow because she was found near the window, breathing fresh air. Osborn instead tried to take the stairs, but already suffered smoke inhalation and collapsed in the lobby while the fire raged on.”

Sharon stared at her, incredulous. “That’s… that’s your deduction?”

Hoag was equally unimpressed. “That is part of why I called you.”

“What’s the other reason?”

Hoag reached into her coat pocket and retrieved a piece of torn sticky note encased in a plastic bag and labeled as evidence. She handed it to Sharon who had to squint to read the writing.

 **Insufficient data supplied by Erskine numbers. Alternate** ****  
  


The rest of the note was burnt, giving no clue as to what the “alternate” could be. But Sharon was focused on the term “Erskine numbers.”

That was familiar. Could it have something to do with Abraham Erskine? She looked up. Hoag clasped her hands behind her back and was walking away, almost leisurely. The director had also recognized the name. 

That’s why she wanted SHIELD involved. Even though Sharon now worked for the CIA, Hoag would be aware of the members who stayed loyal to Captain America during the battle at the Triskelion.

Because the captain would know more about Erskine than anyone else.

“Absolutely nothing recovered,” Hoag sighed, looking into the lab. Sharon swallowed, pocketing the note discreetly.

“A shame,” she said. “When will your team finish the clean-up?”

“We can wrap things up by tonight. Dr. Modell has the company’s Board of Directors coming in tomorrow afternoon to get an estimate on the damage and costs.”

Which meant Sharon’s window of chance extended only until the Board sealed the building off against all agencies. 

“Thank you for inviting me, Director Hoag,” Sharon nodded. “But without any information recovery, this may be an open-and-shut case.”

The director’s lips turned up. “I suspected as much. I’ll jot that on my report, Agent. Thank you.”

Sharon took her leave, the note growing hot in her pocket. Erskine was not a good word to find in a laboratory.

As soon as she was outside the building and in her car, Sharon engaged a short radius of cell non-interference. Steve’s number was imprinted into her head as she typed it on her phone.

Holding the sticky note out, she snapped a pic and sent it to him with the words, “Meet for coffee tomorrow at eight?”

Things at HL were a mystery, Sharon figured, putting her car in reverse. And with the Avengers involved, it might get messy.

**~~~~~**


End file.
